Supreme Court to hear petition by Special Leave regarding ‘Sakshi’ and ‘Eanadu’ newspapers on April 17
On April 10, 2023, the Supreme Court heard a plea against the Andhra Pradesh Government’s scheme of allegedly promoting ‘Sakshi’ newspaper, controlled by the Chief Minister (Jagan Mohan Reddy), filed by the management of Telugu daily ‘Eanadu’. While hearing the matter, the top Court orally remarked, “It should not really appear that the government is making one newspaper a preferred newspaper.” A government order to sanction 200 rupees per month as additional financial support from the state funds for each Ward or Gram Volunteer for enabling them to purchase Telugu newspaper (widely circulated) which provides immense knowledge and awareness on government schemes and other issues. On a contrary, Ushodaya Publications (Eanadu owners) contended that the government purposely fixed 200 rupees per month as subscription charges of ‘Sakshi’ so as to improve its growth over ‘Eanadu’. The matter was presented before the top Court bench after the refusal to stay imposed by the Telangana High Court on government order. The Supreme Court bench including Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha, and Justice JB Pardiwala ordered, “List the Special Leave Petitions (SLPs) on 17 April 2023.”
During the hearing, Senior Advocate appearing for Andra Pradesh Government, CS Vaidyanathan, submitted that the matter was listed for hearing on March 21, 2023, before the High Court. However, “This is a matter in which it is virtually a state newspaper. How can a state have its own newspaper? This should be heard by this court now. This is too important an issue,” submitted by Senior Advocate Mukul Rastogi appearing for Ushodaya Publications. CJI further remarked that “Mr. Vaidyanathan, According to them. You have fixed the amount at Rs. 200. They say that the only newspaper which is under Rs. 200 is Sakshi. It should not really appear that the government is making one newspaper a preferred newspaper. So long as the ceiling which you fix allows for a number of newspaper to have a level playing field, that should serve the purpose. Rs 200 is very obvious.”
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Further, the bench asked for surety from the Senior Advocate appearing for Government that how there was an equal opportunity to grow for all newspapers. To this, he responded that “We offered in the court that we will increase the ceiling limit amount.” Hearing this, Advocate Rastogi was not satisfied and claimed that even if the amount was increased, the volunteers will not opt ‘Eanadu’ newspaper. Further, CJI orally stated that “Your whole petition was this that I am the only person whose subscription is Rs. 206 and therefore I want to the frame. Now if they take the wind out of your sale and say look we will increase the ceiling to Rs 210, then what is the problem?” Following this, Justice Narasimha said “You also want to bite. You are not challenging the validity or the correctness of the scheme. The scheme is good enough. But instead of giving it to Sakshi, give it to all” The bench further decided to list the SLPs on April 17, 2023.
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